THE EFFECT OF THE FOREST UPON WATERS 169 



timber,' but that they should be in part Upon the Allier, transportation by 

 preserved, because they store up the boats was flourishing. Madame de 

 rainfall, feed springs, regulate stream- Montespan, returning in 1676 from the 

 flow, and thus prevent disastrous Hoods, watering place Bourbon-PArchambault, 

 such as were witnessed only last Feb- embarks at Moulins, upon a painted 

 ruary and March in Pennsylvania and and gilded boat, the interior hung with 

 Virginia, where cuttings have been red damask, and adorned with pen- 

 made without thought of the future.'" nants displaying the arms of France 



In France we have numerous proofs and Navarre, in 1819, the passage of 

 of a notable diminution in stream-flow. 2,178 boats was recorded at Moulins; 

 The Durance, which rises in a partially this number rose to 3,524 in 1820, and 

 deforested drainage basin, has become to 4,718 in 1823. In 1837, 100,000 hec- 

 absolutely unfit for navigation or for toliters of coal were unloaded annually 

 floating timber. Yet, at the time of the at Pont-du-Chateau. A line of steam- 

 Roman occupation, there was an impor- boats carried from Pont-du-Chateau to 

 tant organization of boatmen on that Vichy and Moulins in 1845 20,000 pas- 

 river, sengers and 30,000 to 40,000 tons of 



The Loire was formerly a navigable merchandise. In 1890 only ninety-four 



channel of the highest order, which af- tons of fuel and timber were carried 



forded sure communication between down the Allier ; there is no navigation 



Nantes and the central provinces. In ascending the river. 



1551 the Marquis of Northampton, am- At the present time navigation, al- 



bassador from England, went from Or- most null on the Allier, is impossible 



leans to Nantes, with his suite, in "five on the Loire above Saumur. The bed 



large, many-cabined boats." Numerous of the river has risen with frightful 



pictures dating from the eighteenth rapidity because of the enormous vol- 



century represent Orleans and Blois ume of matter torn from the soil of 



animated with veritable flotillas of boats the mountains of the central plateau 



of every kind. that it carries with every flood. It has 



At the time when Gaston d'Orleans been shown in fact that the remains of 

 was exiled to Blois by Richelieu Roman villas recently discovered on its 

 (1634-37), he went down the Loire by shores are several meters lower than 

 boat as far as Brittany, having "dinner the present level of the river. It is the 

 and soup served in beautiful, shady same with the old Roman churches, into 

 places" when he found "some beautiful which it is necessary to descend as into 

 and pleasant isle." At that time these caves, and yet it is impossible to sup- 

 covered boats were called galliots ; they pose that their architects built them 

 carried in them "a large amount of below the level of the river. The build- 

 provisions and a retinue of servants, as ing of dikes, instituted in the seven- 

 well for the kitchen as the wardrobe." 1 teenth century along the Loire to pro- 



Madame de Sevigne went from Or- tect the cultivated fields of the valley 



leans to Rochers by "the delightful against the overflowing of the river, 



route of the River Loire" and found at coincides exactly with the time of the 



Orleans twenty boatmen around her, clearings made on the mountains of 



"each one displaying to the best of his the central plateau, that Colbert tried 



ability the rank of the people he was in vain to check. 



conveying and the beauty of his boat." 1 Forests cover hardly thirteen per 

 Steamboats furnished service as far as cent of the area of the drainage basin 

 Nevers during the first half of the of the Loire, which is, moreover, corn- 

 nineteenth century. posed of impermeable ground. The 



"Jules Huret, En Amerique, de San Francisco au Canad, Paris, 1905, E. Easquelle, p. 461. 

 '"Nicolas Goulas, Memoires. 



"Mme de Sevigne. Lettres a Mme de Grignan, 9 Mai, 1680; 16 Sept., 1684; 21 Mars, 

 1689, etc. 



